Monday, June 7th

Yesterday Karin and I decided to do a mountain bike ride. She wanted to leave first thing in the morning after waking up. I on the other hand couldn’t even open my eyes without that first cup of coffee.

Some people will go to the gym early in the morning before eating anything; my wife falls into that category. She usually rolls her eyes when I say that I need to eat a real breakfast before exerting myself to the limits. French toast came to mind yesterday and so after an hour or two we were finished and ready to hit the steep slopes.

As we cycled up the hill to the entrance of City Creek Canyon, the heat from the sun was blistering on our backs. There at the entrance there is a path that goes off to the right and follows the creek for about a hundred feet, from there it basically switch backs itself up the side of the canyon wall to the top. Something, that even in the lowest of gear, you find yourself coming to a complete stop from exhaustion. Maybe if my thigh muscles were twenty years younger, it might have been a different story. I seemed to be always behind Karin. Somehow women always seem to have more stamina when it comes to endurance, as I tried my best to follow.

We spent much of the time walking the bikes up the steep incline. Karin was swearing at the heat. It was my fault for eating such a large breakfast!

At the top it levels off for a while and you get to catch your breath as you ride through fields of wildflowers. The trail then continues up again, although not quite as steep along the side of the hill. There you could look down into Salt Lake Valley

We came to a junction and decided to continue on up and along the Bonneville Shoreline trail until we reached Dry Creek, from there you can fly down the hill back to civilization. That’s where she turns to me and say’s “Why don’t you go first you like to go faster anyways!” In my mind I knew what she meant. When it comes to downhill most guys tend to leave common sense behind, as they put the bike into the highest gear and begin building up speeds approaching Mach One.

This would explain all the bruises our oldest child has when he returns from a mountain bike ride. Never the less I made it down with no injuries. Karin just called it “Reckless”

Today I just worked a little on the larger Grand Canyon painting, adding some light to the right wall edge and fixing up the rock field below it. It was too red before. I also added a log to the left sand bank.

Richard Boyer